Duthie's Diaries: Good things come

An uncharactaristically upbeat post this time around. Anyone who's been following the weather in the Alps will already know why. The rest of you, read on....

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, it was hard to get excited about the 3 valleys recently. Even with my newfound drive to make the most of the time that's left, the continuing hot spell was a problem, and from 10am onwards the whole area was a sun-baked slushfest. Not too different from what you'd expect for the time of year, and normally we'd have welcomed it without fuss. The only problem was the weeks of thaw that preceded it and left the mountain struggling to cope. Park sessions, usually the standard for this part of the season, have been few and far between; slow snow meant that the black jumps were fenced off, and even the last red hit was often off-limits due to rocks poking through the landing.

The Avalon boardshop got enough of the slush down to put on a rail jam in Meribel, and dozens of riders headed down to have a go at the flat-down box. Despite a fairly sketchy drop-in, the setup was mellow enough to give less experienced riders the chance to compete while still allowing the seasoned shralpers to step it up. Entrants ranged from the bearded French superstar of the Moonpark to an eight-year old girl with a fine line in backside boardslides. It was a good event all round, despite only offering enough time for three hits before we had to leg it to the Brides bubble.

hit #3: salvaging a failed switch back 1 on with a front board

Despite the conditions, I had reason to hold out hope for an improvement. I've been on the mountains at Easter time for the last twelve years, and during that time a pattern has emerged: odd years bad, even years good. Whether it was Cairngorms in 1998 and 2000, or Tignes in '02 and '04, or the freakish out-of-nowhere dumps of Courmayeur and Saalbach that followed, I always seemed to be in the right place at the right time (every second year, at least. The less said about 'gorms '99, Risoul '05 and the rest, the better).

Sure enough, last weekend the temperature plummeted, and it was snowing for only the second time in over six weeks. Not just snowing, but dumping like it hadn't for months. Before long the pistes were covered in fresh, and the snow line was right back down to Les Allues.

Kyla gets over-excited at the unfamiliar sight of falling snow

The next few days passed in a whirlwind of fresh tracks and new discoveries. Having had only a tiny taste of riding powder before the heat wave, Kyla was stoked to try some more. By the end of the first day we had claimed plenty of virgin lines, with the overnight dumps giving us the chance to do it all again the next day. And the next....

Nae vis? Nae bother.

Yesterday was the best day yet, maybe even the finest of the season. Blue skies, sun, cool breeze and at least a foot of fresh, fluffy pow on-piste as well as off. It's on days like yesterday that the Three Valleys stands up to any other resort. The terrain is ridiculous in its quantity, variety and ease of access. All the steep, deep, trees, hits, drops and gullys you could ask for, and most of it right off a lift. These last few days, I wouldn't have wanted to be anywhere else.

Fellow Brides resident Alex Young switches it up

Today the temperature shot up about 17 degrees, and the slush is back. Even so, to get a few more days of pow has made all the difference to our season. Just got back from another trip to Tignes, more on that later this week.

Duthie